This Week In The Laboratories Of Democracy

Welcome to our weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin' gets done, and where the sign on the window says...lonely.

The country's local thooleramawns were relatively quiet this week, and likely will be the next, too, what with holidays blowing the hell out of the middle of the week and all. Nevertheless, there's a proper legal fais-do-do down in Louisiana where BP -- you know, that nice company that runs all those pretty come-eat-our-shrimp commercials about how much it is doing for the Gulf Of Mexico, which its negligence turned into a chemistry set a few years back? -- has deployed a small legion of lawyers to welch on its agreements actually to pay the people whose lives it ruined. A U.S. District Judge has declined to be impressed.

BP wanted the rules of a class action settlement to be rewritten to require "proof of causation" or to throw out the entire multi-billion dollar agreement. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier disagreed, writing that BP's argument is "not only clearly inconsistent with its previous position, it directly contradicts what it has told this court." In an earlier decision, Barbier also blasted the company for "attempting to rewrite or disregard the unambiguous terms of the settlement agreement." BP had once called the class action settlement "more than fair." BP plans to appeal. While BP publicly touts its support for local Gulf businesses, it has deployed an army of lawyers to stall litigation over the disaster. This summer, CEO Robert Dudley explained their aggressive action by pointing a finger at people he believes suffered "no losses from the spill." "I don't think it's right for America," he said. BP even launched a hotline that pays watchdogs to report fraud.

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Well, I, for one, always depend on the head of BP to decide what's right for America, and for pelicans, many of whom have ceased to be flammable for, oh, 18 minutes or so.

The skids being greased and all, let's slide up to Iowa, where the state auditor is the latest to take a look at how much money Secretary of State Matt Schultz is wasting on his voter-fraud snipe hunt, and whether or not Schultz has been sluicing federal money meant to help people vote into his effort to keep people from doing so. Up until now, apparently, your tax dollars have been funding the Inspector Clouseau of the grain silos.

The letter from Chief Deputy State Auditor Warren Jenkins, dated Wednesday, is careful not to say whether using HAVA funds for criminal investigations is appropriate or not. But it does note that such efforts are not included in a lengthy list of allowable uses for the funds found in federal law. Jenkins' recommendation is for the secretary's office to have a plan in place should the U.S. Election Assistance Commission rule that HAVA funds cannot be used.

And we conclude our brief holiday trip, which was neither light not fantastic, in Oklahoma, where Blog Special Shrike wrangler Friedman Of The Plains hips us to the attempt by one legislator to make school children free by forcing them to say that they are.

The bill by Republican Sen. Rob Standridge of Norman requires saying the Pledge of Allegiance daily at elementary schools and allows the recitation once daily in other public schools. The Journal Record in Oklahoma City reported that the bill also provides an exemption for students who do not wish to take part in the pledge.

Alternately, the bill is known as the Get Your Ass Kicked At Recess Every Day Act Of 2014.